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I recently
had an interesting conversation with a man called "Babe."
We were sitting in the usual din at ding talking about gambling
in general and Las Vegas in particular. He suddenly leaned
back and told me:
The only way to say it is that Las Vegas is going downhill.
When the gangsters controlled the place it was much better.
They knew how to run a scam. A good thief never takes everything;
he always leaves the sucker with a little so he'll be back.
I remember talking to a farmer during World War II who had
been under both German and Russian occupation. He told me
the Germans came around every week with a list and took
just enough so that they could come back and fill the same
list the next week. The Russians, on the other hand, swept
in and took everything so there was no more for anybody.
Well, the Las Vegas casinos are the Russians of gambling.
The trouble is the place is run by accountants with one
hand on their computer and the other in the till. All they
care about is the bottom line and the hell with the patron.
So the players are going elsewhere. Food is expensive, shows
are outrageous, and the free entertainment in the lounges
has been cut back because it's too costly. Even slots are
going up in price. Now they're losing the little old lady
who faithfully drops two hundred dollars a trip several
times a year. The bettors aren't as stupid as the casinos
might think.
I had to laugh at Babe wishing the crooks were back in control,
but I agreed that casino gambling has changed drastically.
As long as the supply falls short of the demand, the casinos
are going to be in the driver's seat. But there are signs
that this is about to change. In the East, the huge success
of the Atlantic City casinos has brought real worry into
the executive suites in Nevada. The gasoline shortage of
1979 (and who knows how much longer) has restricted the
flow of gamers from the West Coast, leaving Las Vegas stranded.
If this continues, at some point greed will become tempered
by reality. Only by making the game more attractive can
the nation's casinos maintain their growth and profitability
in the next five to ten years.
On the other side, what can you expect in the way of future
Blackjack systems? If you are thinking of trying to use
the current level of miniature computer technology, it's
already been done. Using five small computers specially
built into pairs of shoes, inventor Keith Taft and team
organizer Ken Uston masterminded a win of $130,000 in a
short period in 1977. When one of their two-person teams
was discovered in Harvey's Club in May 1977, the team stopped
operating with the computer.
The computer was confiscated and sent to the FBI in Washington.
Five months later, the FBI determined that the computer
was not a cheating device and made use of the normal information
any player had. Charges were dropped after this pronouncement.
In an article following these events, I wrote in the IBC
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